Inside this Issue: Greenway Champs Running Angels Autumn Festival events Tidy Village? Footpath repairs Sciath na Scoil Corpus Christi Procession The annual Corpus Christi procession will take place in Coachford on Sunday after mass at 11.30am. The procession is a wonderful spectacle and an opportunity for the whole parish to come together and mark the event by walking in the procession and praying at the very beautiful grotto in Coachford. Children who have recently received their first Holy communion will lead the procession of the Blessed Sacrament through the village and the girls will scatter flower petals in front of the canopy which the children who have received their confirmation in April will carry Next Monthly Market Saturday June 20th GAA Hall from 10.30am to 1.00pm Camps Galore for Coachford s Summer There will be no excuses for being bored in Coachford this summer as three Summer camps have been announced this week. First up is the Activity Summer Camp in Coachford College from June 29th to July 3rd. This was hugely popular last year and was the highlight of the summer for many of the children in the area. The camp is organised and run by Michael Horan and John Flynn, both of whom are teachers in Coachford National School. The camp takes place at Coachford Community College and is packed with fun games and activities for children of all ages and is divided up between two age groups, (5-6 year olds and 7-13 year olds). Activities include; Volleyball. Athletics, Indoor bowls, Dodge ball, Scavenger Hunt, Table Tennis, Obstacle Course, Olympic handball, and much more. For more information contact 087 3461831 or jfmhleisure@yahoo.ie. The Aghabullogue GAA CÚL Camp is taking place in Coachford from July 6th to July 10th. The camp caters for children from 6-13 years and costs 55 per child. Further information and rates for additional family members are available from Maura Ring on 086-6079211. You can also book online at http:// www.kelloggsculcamps.gaa.ie The FAI Summer School Soccer camp is being organised again this year from July 13th to 17th at the Coachford AFC grounds in the Glebe Coachford.This camp aims to provide children between the ages of 6 and 14 the opportunity to attend a week-long football summer camp. Every year boys and girls from all around the Coachford area and of all abilities turn out to enjoy five days of fun and football. It doesn't matter if you're just a beginner or if you have our sights set on Robbie Keane's number 10 shirt, you will have fun and learn a lot out of the Summer Soccer Schools. The Coachford camp starts at 10.30am and runs until 3pm each day. The cost of the camp is 65 and each child will receive a full official SportsWorld FAI Summer Soccer Schools kit, ball, and backpack.you can book online at www.summersoccerschools.ie or by ringing 1890 653 653 Booking for all camps is advisable as these fill up fast.
Getting Ready for Eircode Eircode is the new postcode system for Ireland. This July a letter will be sent to all addresses in West and Mid Cork notifying them of the Eircode for that address. Your address does not change, you simply include the Eircode at the bottom of your address. There are many benefits to using Eircode, including making it quicker and easier for medical emergency services and others to locate addresses. It is safe to give an Eircode to anyone you would normally give your address to. More information is available on www.eircode.ie. Tidy Towns The National Tidy Towns competition judging begins next week and Coachford Tidy Towns (CTT) are hoping for an improved mark this year. The group have recently installed a new planted bed south of the GAA pitch in what was a previously dead and blank space. The members of CTT would like to thank, James Murphy, Denis O'Sullivan (and Sean) Landscapes and Patrick O'Donovan for all their help in getting this in place and looking so well. They would also like to thank Broomhill Vintage club and Coachford Autumn Festival for helping to fund this project. The village is looking very tidy and clean this year and the CTT would like to acknowledge the huge help of Oliver O'Riordan in keeping the place so tidy and Johnny Healy who volunteered an entire weeks work on various projects around the village. The CTT have received mixed results in the Cork County Litter Challenge. The first scores received were very high at 95 marks out of 100 however this week s results, 78 /100 were very disappointing and have moved the village well down the league table. Discarded cigarette butts, coffee cups,. Sweet wrappers, tops of drink cartons and glasses all contributed to the poor mark. Litter is all our responsibility. We must all dispose of it properly. Business owners really should ensure that outside their premises is clean, throughout the day and at close of business after all a clean and tidy village benefits everyone. While it is recognised that Coachford is bigger than most other villages in the competition, it therefore needs the co-operation from the local business association members, residents and visitors to ensure it looks well and is kept clean..
Major Mayor Award Winners Congratulations to the members of the Inniscarra lake Tourism Development Company (ILTDC ), the people who developed the Coachford Greenway. This week they were honoured by the Mayor of Cork, and Cork county council for their Trojan work in developing the facility. The Mayor, Cllr. Alan Coleman praised the ILTDC for their belief in the project, the manner in which they set about achieving their goal and the way that they delivered the finished an inland fishing facility to rival any of those across Europe product. "Make no mistake, what this group has done for the Lee Valley area and for the economy of Tim Lucey, Cork County Manger, Robert Allen, & Tommy Lawton (ILTDC) and Mayor of Cork County, Cllr. Alan Coleman Cork is immense. Not only have they created an inland fishing facility to rival any of those across Europe, they have also in the process created an outstanding amenity for the Coachford and Mid Cork region. It is my pleasure to announce that the Inniscarra Lake Tourism Development Company are the winners of the Cork County Council Community and Voluntary award for Cork South." On accepting the award, Tommy Lawton of the ILTDC said" we are delighted to have received this honour. It's always great to have the work that so many people have put in over the last few years appreciated and recognised. The Greenway is open almost twelve months and the number of overseas anglers visiting the facility every week is on the increase and we are looking forward to a big influx of fisherman during the next few months. We are blown away by the huge number of people enjoying the Greenway and it's great to see the walk being availed of by so many people.". The reservoir is attracting anglers from all over the globe at present and fishing has been good during the recent festivals. Hundreds of walkers and runners are using the Greenway on a daily and weekly basis and the numbers on the walkway are growing every week and it is expected that during the summer months it will be particularly busy at all times during the day. Community Council PRO, Doug Lucey said We are delighted that the ILTDC won the award, it was well deserved. We were very fortunate as a community that we had two nominations accepted for the awards. John and Siobhan Hogan were equally deserving of the nomination for all the community work that they have carried out over the years. I understand that they narrowly missed out in picking up an a superb, safe, clean amenity for all individual award for the Cork South area. It is now twelve months on since the Greenway was opened to walkers and what a success it has been. It has brought people from all over our community together to enjoy the facility, acted as a venue for Operation Transformation and provides a superb, safe, clean amenity for all. The fears and genuine concerns of some have been dispelled and thankfully failed to materialised. The huge injection into the economy by those coming to fish on the river is seen in the village and surrounding areas more and more and I m sure will continue to increase as the world comes to recognise what a great facility we have here and the warm welcome that awaits them. The ILTDC are owed our thanks and appreciation and it was right and fitting that this group of people who came together to build something that they believed in should be honoured in this way. Our wish now as a Community Council is that a proper link from the village to the amenity would be provided and that the footpath from the GAA pitch will be improved and added to. Members of the ILTDC at the awards ceremony, Martin O Mahony, Tommie Lawton, Robert Allen, Eileen Martin and Pete Turner
Suicide Aware Honours Tractor Builders Broomhill vintage club were honoured by the charity,.'suicide Aware' for all the support the club has given the charity over the last few years. At a flag awarding ceremony the organisers of the Coachford Autumn Festival were thanked for the enormous amount of monies raised for Suicide Aware over the last number of years through the Festival and the donations given at the Tractor Builds and Vintage Runs. Rugby Star, and the new ambassador for the Suicide Aware charity, Alan Quinlan, in presenting the flag, praised the club and commended them in their efforts to fundraise for a worthy cause and to help in removing the stigma around mental health. Club secretary, Peter Dineen said, "while it was lovely to be honoured and thanked by Suicide Aware, thanks should really go to all those who support our events and attend the festival and those businesses that sponsor us each year. Our Tractor builders have toured all over the county and beyond and have raised a huge amount of money through donations received at the various events. The Coachford Autumn Festival continues to go from strength to strength and is now one of the biggest weekend events in Cork. We are continuing to do our best to grow the event and to try and raise as much money as possible for Suicide Aware and other charities. New Community Council The new members of the Aghabullogue Coachford Rylane Community Council met last week for the first time since they were elected in early May. The council members are Siobhan O Keeffe, Dan Twomey, John O Sullivan Conor McSweeney and Aidan Ronan who represent the Aghabullogue area. Representing the Coachford area are; Mairead Ní Buachalla, Bernie O Riordan, Martha McCaffery. Jeremiah O Sullivan, Peter Dineen, Pat Kiely and Doug Lucey. Representing the Rylane area are; Joanne Lyons, Norma Walsh, Sean Buckley, Nigel Dennehy and Vincent Carroll. The first order of business by the new grouping was to elect its officers for the coming year. After a discussion of the roles of the officers. the following were elected. Chairperson, Mairead Ní Buachalla, Vice Chairperson, Norma Walsh, Secretary, Joanne Lyons, Treasurer, Nigel Dennehy and Public Relations officer, Doug Lucey. The meeting then went on to go through items of concern for the Community Council that need addressing. High on the list were the ongoing issues with the lack of a proper sewage treatment plant in Coachford and the lack of a proper footpath in Rylane. The council also discussed the Village Design Statements, Tidy Towns, the school bus service from Rylane to Coachford College and the workings of the heritage committee. The next meeting is planned for June 24 th. After representation from the Coachford members of the Community Council to the Area Engineers Office,works are expected to commence shortly on some footpaths around the village. It is hoped that work on the footpath from Fr. Patrick Sheehan Place to the national school will begin later this month. Works on repairing the footpath from the village to the church are also planned for this month as it has some very bad sections on it. The metal plates outside the gates of O Callaghan s Bar are expected to be replaced towards the end of the summer. These repairs are long overdue to what initially was supposed to be a temporary measure. Unfortunately Cork County Council has no funding or plans to replace the footpath by the GAA club at present. There is an issue with the gulleys and soakways here working slowly which contributes to flooding and the council has assured us that they will arrange for them to be cleaned jetted in June. With a General election just around the corner it would be important for all the community to keep the pressure on our local representatives to get this footpath repaired. When questioned about why the road from the village to John s Cross was not resurfaced we received the following reply Surfacing of the R619 was not carried out as we were notified of a problem with the existing sewer by Water Services. We are currently awaiting a decision and feedback from the Water Services Department / Irish Water as to when and what repairs are going to be carried out on this sewer. The road will not be surfaced this year as resurfacing funding has been fully allocated so if the sewer repairs are carried out this year we will look to arrange for resurfacing in 2016.
Coachford Autumn Festival 2015 Plans for the 6th Coachford Autumn Festival are well underway and some new events have been added to the programme for this year. Due to the success of last year s Voice of the Festival a junior voice competition will be held on Thursday August 13th. The competition is open to those under 16years of age. The Coachford Five Mile Road Race is being held again this year and will follow the same route as the two previous years. This event which takes place on Friday, August 14th, is getting more popular each year and the organisers, Broomhill Vintage Club, are expecting an increase in the number of female athletes this year tackling the 5 mile challenge. The adult Voice of the Festival competition in association with Aghabullogue GAA takes to the stage on Saturday night, August 15th and if last year is anything to go by we can expect n excellent night of some superb talent on display in the GAA Hall. Those wishing to take part must get a business to nominate them so start planning now. Sunday will see all the activities take place in the GAA grounds and this year The Lee Valley Fittest Family Challenge will be one of the new events set to entertain the crowds. As well as this, the popular Sheep Racing, Egg throwing, Dunk Tank, Vintage Show, Face Painter, Model Toy show, and Children s Sports are all returning. There are also some new side shows being planned and details of these will be advertised shortly. To date the Coachford Autumn Festival and Broomhill Vintage Club have raised over 28,000 for charity and local groups. Funds from the festival have been donated to Suicide Aware, Macroom Community Hospital, Cared of the Aged, Sullane Haven sheltered accommodation, St. Vincent de Paul, Coachford Tidy Towns, Coachford Christmas Lights and Coachford Foróige. Without the very generous sponsors and supporters the festival would not be able to continue. Tadgh Murphy Chairperson Broomhill Vintage Club said There are probably a lot easier ways of raising money but our goal setting out on planning a festival six years ago was to try and create something that the whole community could get involved in and enjoy and if we could cover our costs and raise some money for charity then that would be a bonus. We are all delighted that we have managed to raise so much money for charity over the last few years especially when times were tough. We are very proud that our festival has grown to be one of the finest in the county and that we have kept its focus as a family festival, suitable for everyone. We would really like some more people from the area to get involved in helping to run the festival and to help us out over the four days. We are all looking forward yet again to another hectic but very rewarding few days and to the communities continued support. To get involved contact Tadgh on 087 24 26 343 or Peter on 086 80 30 086
Dates for your Diary Saturday June 13 th In Mayfield, IHC Round 2, Aghabullogue Versus Castlemartyr at 7.00pm, In the event of a draw Extra Time will be played In Ballyclough, IHC Round 2, Dripsey versus Milford at 7.30pm, In the event of a draw Extra Time will be played. Running Angels Ten women from Coachford competed in the Cork City Coachford retain Premier status Coachford AFC have retained their Premier League status for yet another season. The boys have had a difficult year with retirements and transfers affecting the league winning team of two years ago but the team dug out some very important wins and draws during this season to ensure that they play top flight football again in the 2015/16 season. The B team were unlucky not have made the Division 2 play offs. The season went well but the closing stages saw other teams really come into form and the lads were pipped for a play off place and will remain in Division 3B for nest season. Rylane get promoted Congratulations to Rylane AFC who were promoted to the premier league from Division 1 on Saturday. Rylane secured their place in the top league by defeating St. John Boscos from Cork city by two goals to nil. The promotion will help to ease the pain of losing the title race with Kanturk FC the previous week. Rylane AFC have become a very serious team over the last three years and have progressed quickly to the Premier division. Judging on last Saturday s performance they will not be out of place in this very competitive league. Sciath na Scoil Heroes Marathon last Monday as part of two relay teams. The Coachford Angels meet every week with many others to jog around the village. Some of the women were part of Ciara Murphy s Operation Transformation programme in February and have kept up the running ever since. They decided to set the Marathon as their goal and trained towards it. The Angels completed the marathon which was run in dreadful conditions and enjoyed the experience so much that they vowed to continue the training throughout the summer. Next up for the athletes is the Coachford Autumn Festival 5 mile road race on Friday August 14 th. The groups mentor and trainer, Ciara Murphy completed the full marathon in a time of 3hrs.36mins. Aghabullogue and Coachford Schools both qualified for the Sciath Na Scoil hurling and Camogie Finals. The Aghabullogue hurlers faced a very formidable Bartlemy side and although the Bride Rovers parish school can out on top Aghabullogue can be very proud of the way the way they played and the standard of hurling they produced on the day. Ballyheedy National School, Ballinhassig were the opposition for the Coachford Camogie team and this low scoring game was in the fire until the final whistle blew. The Coachford girls played superbly, never gave up and fought to the bitter end.. Both Aghabullogue and Coachford played well and represented their schools, families and community Luke Martin supporting Coachford National School with honour. A lot of schools set out each year to reach the Sciath na Scoil finals but only the very best make it Aghabullogue National School Sciath na Scoil team